the florida trail

Weekend 50 Hike

Sat, 6 Mar 2010 12:25:59 -0600

On the drive to today’s hike, I spotted two deer eating grass on the side of the interstate at about 4:30 am and on the drive home I saw a wolf just off the edge of the interstate looking like he wanted to cross. The drive was unique as I was able to see the sunrise on the drive to the trail and was able to see the sunset on the drive back home.

The hike itself was challenging and a fun, unique hike. The 7.5 mile hike through Bradwell Bay wilderness is considered the toughest part of the Florida Trail. I want to especially thank Kent Wimmer for putting this hike together as a group. I am sure that if I were to hike this trail alone as my first swamp hike, I would have been quite miserable. The water was very cold and sometimes seemed to be endless. But being able to socialize with others while hiking helped take your mind off the water and made the hike more enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this hike as it was truly an adventure.

Did not see many animals on the hike. I am sure our group of 16 people probably scared off any wildlife that heard us coming. I did see a woodpecker and someone pointed out bear scrapes on a tree.

We stopped to eat lunch on Bradwell Bay Island , which is a small campsite area that is slightly higher in elevation and so makes for a good place to camp.

Note quite sure how long this hike was as it did not take a look at the time we started the actual hike or when we finished. Oh well.

The weather turned out beautiful and either the water turned a little warmer throughout the day or I was just getting used to the temperature. The water was very cold... cold enough to make your feet and legs feel numb, especially if you didn’t keep moving.

I am posting the unedited video of our hike for now and will eventually go back and edit it properly as time permits.

Weekend 33 Hike

Sun, 6 Dec 2009 07:00:50 -0600

On the drive to the trailhead this morning I saw a bobcat crossing the road. It crossed the road to the side opposite of me, stopped and watched me pass by. I believe I saw a bobcat on my last hike as well, but it was too far away for me to tell what it was for sure.

Today was cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold! When I arrived at the trailhead the temperature was right at 32 degrees. I arrived about 15 minutes too early and it was still dark. So I would do a little outside of the car to get ready for my hike and then jump back into the car to get warm again. Started hiking once the sun came up. The sunrise this morning was beautiful. There were scattered clouds in the sky and the sun lit them up a bright red.

I thought for sure I was going to be using my pepper spray on a couple of dogs. I heard some vicious barking across the street. I looked up to see two dogs running full pace at me. I took my safety of the pepper spray and spoke in a commanding tone at the dogs. They stopped before crossing the street, looked at me for a couple seconds, then took off running the other way. I then saw a man on horseback coming out of the trees. He must have called his dogs back to him.

Today I was more excited than usual with my hike as it was my first hike to incorporate geocaching into my hike. Geocaching is a sport where you use your GPS to try to find a “treasure”, known as a cache, that someone else has hidden. Sometimes you will receive clues to its location as well. Once you find the cache, there is a log book you can write in, and sometimes there are items in the cache that you can trade with an item you are carrying. Lots of fun. If you own a GPS and might be interested in geocaching, visit www.geocaching.com and sign up for a free account. You may be surprised how many caches are in your area.

The hike went well for a roadwalk. There was a couple pretty sights of ponds along the way. No rain today, which was good considering how cold it was. When I made it back to the car, there was a guy taking a survey about my experience on the trail. Spoke with him for a few minutes before leaving to head back home.

Weekend 32 Hike

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:27:49 -0600

Started my hike today, and about five minutes into my hike I felt something dripping on the back of my leg. Turns out my “camelbak” style container was leaking. I quickly hiked back to the car and emptied the rest of the gatorade into the original bottles it came in. Ended up losing about 18 ounces from my 60 ounces of gatorade for the hike. Decided to continue the hike anyway.

I later learned that the leak was just a loose connector that connected the hose to the bag. I have decided that if I continue to use the camelbak, I will carry the empty bottles with me just in case the bag becomes compromised.

So the first few hours of my hike, the gatorade that had leaked out of the camelbak slowly seeped out of the bottom of my backpack and kept me wet. I suppose I could have emptied out my bag and dumped the loose gatorade out, but I wanted to get going on my hike, so I didn’t worry about it.

The hike was fairly boring. Not much to see as far as wildlife goes. The road was more secluded than other roads I have hiked, so there were not as many cars passing by either.

It started raining on my way back to the car. It continued to rain for about an hour and a half. I have not had much success staying dry even when I wear my rain gear, so I decided to not wear my rain gear. Learned another lesson today. WEAR THE RAIN GEAR. The rain was cold and the wind was blowing. Without that extra layer of protection, I had no wind break and little to help keep the heat trapped in my body. If I was hiking somewhere colder than Florida, not wearing that extra layer would have probably been a big mistake. But, I was able to endure it for the brief time it was raining.

This hike was the longest I have hiked in a single day before. I hiked about 16 miles. Made it back to the car about 2 hours sooner that I thought I would. I hiked at a fairly fast pace and didn’t stop very often since I did not use my camcorder at all and only took a few pictures.

Weekend 31 Hike

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:48:50 -0600

Today was great weather for a long hike. The temperature was cold enough I had to wear gloves for the first couple hours, but it turned into a beautiful day.

I saw a 4 deer on separate occasions on this hike, which is the most deer I have seen on one hike. Again, as usual, I was not fast enough to capture one on film. I think the only way I am going to be successful with filming a deer is if I spot it before it sees me. I tend to not see any deer until they are already running away from me.

Came across a large section of pitcher plants and took a few pictures of them. I spotted a couple different hunting stands setup right at the edge of the trail, so I took a few pics of them as well.

There were a few areas on the trail where the water was not draining well, and I had to walk through a little water or mud. Luckily, the water was not any higher than the top of my shoes.

I want to give a special thanks to all those who help create and maintain the trails. If if was not for all your hard work, I would not have a trail nearby to hike on every week. Thanks to Luke Owens, a boy scout who cleared a large section of trail I hiked today.

When I arrived back at the car, I met a nice elderly man named Gordon who provides transport for hikers. He said he used to live in a nursing home, but it became too depressing for him, so now he drives his van throughout Florida helping hikers get back to their cars.